History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 69

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840

USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 69
USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 69

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JOHN T. BIRD was appointed vice-chancellor in 188], in place of Amzi Dodd, resigned. Mr. Bird is also a native of Hunterdon, and was practicing law

in Flemington at the time of his appointment. In 1863 he was prosecutor of the pleas, and from 1wis to 1874 a member of Congress.

Of the multitude of lawyers who have been resident practitioners in Essex County, there is at present one who is now a member of neither its bench nor its bar, and yet upon whose shoulders the ermine rests. . All lawyers understand that no judge can practice in any court inferior to his own, and to such an extent his privilege as an attorney or a counselor ends. He may, however, do business in courts above him, from which there can be no appeal to his own. It follows then that no judge of the Supreme Court of New Jer- sey can appear as an attorney in any court whatever of his own State, and that no judge of the Supreute Court of the United States can appear as an attorney in any civil court whatever throughout the land. The subject of the following sketch must therefore stand alone.

JOSEPH P'. BRADLEY was born at Berne, near Albany, N. Y., March 14, 1513, and is sixth in de- scent from Francis Bradley and Ruth Barlow, ot Fairfield, Conn. With very limited advantages, his education was sufficient to enable him, at the age of sixteen, to obtain a position as a school-teacher, and thus to support himself while making the necessary preparation to enter college. In this he was so sue- cessful that in I-33 he entered the sophomore class of Rutgers College, and was graduated from that institution with honors in 1-36. Although excelling in mathematics while a student, he was no less profi- cient in Latin and tireek, and his familiarity with these studies he has, throughout a busy life, found great pleasure in preserving. When he entered col- lege his intention was to make the ministry his pro- fession. With such a purpose, he naturally became a student of the Bible, and, without neglecting his academic studies, managed, during his collegiate course, with his characteristic pertinacity, to wrestle with the abstrusities of theology; and even this study he has kept up throughont life with the other lordly branches of human knowledge. Why he set aside the ministry for the law is unimportant, but this he did while, after leaving college, he was presi- ding over the academy at Millstone, Somerset Co., N. J. His decision in this matter having been made, he promptly removed to Newark, N. J., and entered as a student-at-law, the office of Archer Gitford, Esq., a lawyer at that time of considerable standing, and collector of the port. Here Mr. Bradley found not only an opportunity to study, but the means of sup- port, by acting as inspector of the customs under his preceptor, the collector. In Newark, too, he found his old college classmates, Cortlandt Parker and Fred- erick T. Frelinghuysen, and in 1839, two months after them, he was admitted to the bar. He at once entered upon the practice of law, and for thirty years was constant and unwearied in the discharge of his

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

professional duties. For a long period he was a director in, and counsel to, the C'amdeu and Amboy Railroad Company, and was also counsel to the Dela- ware and Raritan Canal Company. On this account, as well as for his high standing as a lawyer, he has been engaged in most of the more important cases that have for many years past been before the higher courts of the State. Among them may be mentioned the Passaic Bridge case, which he argued in 1860; the celebrated Mecker will case, which occupied the courts of New Jersey from 1852 to 1860; the New Jersey zine case; the Belvidere land case ; the mur- der case of Harden, the Methodist minister, hung for poisoning his wife, and of Donelly, who assassinated his friend at Long Branch. In these and many other cases has Mr. Bradley exhibited not only his pro- found knowledge of the law, but his ability to place clearly and convincingly before a jury the grounds upon which their verdiet should be rendered. Gov- erned as he always is himself by force of reason, it is for him natural to avoid the sentimental claptrap so often resorted to in the management of juries.

Though a Whig in the days of that party, and a Republican since, Mr. Bradley was never an office- seeker, and when, in 1862, he was nominated to repre- sent the Fifth Congressional District, he knew that he had been selected as the leader of a forlorn hope, and that a dozen political place-hunters would have pre- vented his nomination had there been the smallest chance of success. His defeat was a foregone con- clusion. In 1868 he headed the Grant and Colfax electoral ticket in his State.

In addition to his arduous professional duties, Mr. Bradley was, from 1851 to 1853, mathematician, or actuary, of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Com- pany, and was also a director iu various financial in- stitutions, to all of which he rendered important ser- vices. His industry and love of intellectual labor were further illustrated in the large number of ad- dresses and learned papers written by him, and read by him before college societies and other literary, as well as scientific, associations. He was recognized as a man of great learning as early as 1859, when La- fayette College, Pennsylvania, conferred upon him the degree of I.L. D.

In 1870 two vacancies on the bench of the United States Supreme Court existed, and President Grant nominated Mr. Bradley and Mr. Strong to fill them. Mr. Strong's nomination being first acted upon by the Senate, was promptly confirmed, and he was assigned to the judicial circuit of which he was a resident. Some delay was oces ioned in the confirmation of Mr. Bradley, by reason of his being a non-resident of the remaining vacant circuit, which comprehended the district- of Georgia, Northern and Southern Florida, Northern and Southern Alabama, Mississippi, Louis- iana, and Eastern and Western Texas. All objections were, however, easily removed, and Mr. Bradley being confirmed, enterel upon the duties of his office.

During some months of the year it was necessary for him, as well as for all of the members of the court, to reside at Washington, and the result was that he made the national capital his dwelling-place, an ex- ample which was soon followed by all the other judges of the Supreme Court.

The limits assigned to this sketch will not admit of even a list of the many important questions which Mr. Justice Bradley has been called upon to decide. For none of his decisions has he received adverse criticism, except, perhaps, from those with whose interests or political prejudices they may have collided. It was to be expected that, as a member of the Elee- toral Commission, his vote, whatever it might be, would give offense to the party defeated by it; and yet his argument on that occasion was pronounced unanswerable by many distinguished men who were politically his opponents. It is true that his appoint- ment by the four Supreme Court justices gave to the Republicans a majority in the electoral tribunal charged with determining the result of the Presi- dential election in the year 1877; but the oath : "I, -, do solemnly swear, that I will impar- tially examine and consider all questions submitted to the commission of which I am a member, and a true judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Consti- tution and the laws : so help me God," was as binding upon each one as upon him. And yet it was not so considered ; for seven men of each political party were expected to render judgment in accordance with the pronounced wishes of their respective parties. The matter might have been very much simplified by the retirement of the fourteen partisans. As it was, the whole responsibility was thrown upon Justice Bradley, and without reading his able argument upon that grave occasion, or weighing the reasons which impelled his action, he has been condemned or praised, as prejudice might dictate.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE BAR OF ESSEX COUNTY. (Continued.)

PRIOR to March 19, 1857, the territory now forming the county of Union was within the limits of the county of Essex. Of the lawyers who lived in that portion of the old county, many became greatly dis- tinguished, and if their names are not found in the list which here follows, it is because the design of this work will not admit of it. A brief mention of non-residents of the county in connection with the higher courts, was unavoidable, but in giving below the names of those who have been and who are now members of the bar of Essex, we shall be confined to the county as it is now known and described. It is

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THE BAR OF ESSEX COUNTY.

true that in this list will be found the names of gentle- men who reside in other counties; but in such cases, as will be seen, they are members of the Essex County bar, and their offices are in the city of Newark. The names of those who have appeared elsewhere in these sketches will not be here included. Of the deceased, it has been, in many cases, so difficult to obtain satis- factory information that little more than their names appears; of the living, some are ambitions of no other record than will be found of them in the family Bible or finally upon the tombstone ; and of many who have really achieved somewhat in the world, it has been hard to learn from them even when, and upon what sput, they came into it. If the name of any member of the bar of Essex is not mentioned here it is not for lack of effort on the part of the com- piler to obtain it.

Deceased Members of Essex County Bar .- ALEX- I paralysis, from which, however, he recovered suffi- ANDER CUMMING MCWHORTER, son of Rev. Alexan- der Mcwhorter, D.D., was born in Newark, N. I., in 1771, and after a careful preparation under the direc- tion of his venerable father, entered the College of New Jersey, and was graduated therefrom in 1784. He applied himself immediately to the study of law, and in September, 1758, was admitted to the bar, where he soon acquired the reputation of a sound, judicious lawyer, and his name may be found associ- ated in cases of importance with those of Elias Van Arsdale, tiovernor Aaron Ogden and other distin- guished counselors of that day. For several years he was surrogate of Essex County. During the latter part of his life his health suddenly failed, and after a painful sickness he died, October 8, 1808, at the carly age of thirty-seven. llis death caused great sorrow throughout the town of Newark, where he was greatly esteemed for his many excellent qualities of mind and heart. A meeting of the bar was held two days after, at which Aaron Ogden (soon afterward tłovernor) presided, and Joseph C. Hornblower (then a young lawyer of five years' standing) acted as secre- tary, and the following resolution was adopted :

" This meeting being deeply afflicted with the death of their much beloved, worthy und esteemed brother and friend, Alexander (. MeWhorter, Fxg., do resolve that, as a testimony of the high respect and sincere affection that they bear for the memory of the deceased, for his profesional talruta, learning nud integrity, and his social and domestic virtues, that they will each of them wear a crape on the left arm for the nyere of thirty days, and recommend to their brethren of the profesion through the state to do the same."

Mr. Me Whorter married Phebe, daughter of Caleb Bruen, of Newark, by whom he had six children.

WILLIAM HALSEY, the first mayor of the city of Newark, was born near Short Hills, Essex Co., N. J., in 1770, and in 1794 was admitted to the bar, where he occupied a prominent place among the ublest men of that period. In 1836 the city of New- ark, containing a population of nineteen thousand, was incorporated, and by an act of the Legislature was divided into four wards, each wurd being em- powered to elect four aldermen annually as members

of the Common Council. At the first election under this charter William Halsey was chosen mayor, and his associates in the city government will be recog- nized as men who have been prominent in the city's history. The recorder at that time was Oliver S. Halsted ; the clerk of council, Joseph N. Tuttle ; aldermen from the North Ward, Abram W. Kinney, William Lee, Isaac Mecker and John H. Stephens; from the West Ward, Enoch Bolles, William Rankin, Almer 1. Howell and James Keene; from the South Ward, Isaac Baldwin, Thomas D. Pierson, Aaron Camp and Henry L. Parkhurst ; from the East Ward, William Garthwaite, Joel W. Condit, James Beards- ley and James Miller.

Mr. Halsey never entered political life, and was averse to offices both public and private. Some years before his death he was prostrated by an attack of ciently to attend to his private business. After retir- ing from active practice he accepted a seat on the bench of the Court of Common Pleas. He died suddenly, as is supposed, of apoplexy, August 16, 1843, in his seventy-third year.

ELIAS VAN ARSDALE, SR., was born near Free- hold, in Monmouth County, N. J., December 13, 1770. Ilis father, Rev. Jacob Van Arsdale, subst- quently removed to Springfield, Essex Co., and was pastor of the church of that place for more than twenty-five years. The subject of this sketch was graduated from the College of New Jersey, at Prince- ton, in 1791, and immediately began the study of law under the direction of Judge Elisha Boudinot, of Newark, N. J. In 1795 he was admitted to the bar, and opening an office in the latter place, commenced the practice of his profession. In November, 1812, he succeeded William S. Pennington as president of the State Bank of Newark, the latter soon after be- coming Governor of the State. The duties of this office did not, however, withdraw Mr. Van Arsdale from his profession, which he continued to practice in the higher courts with distinguished ability. Al- though averse to holdling any political office, he con- sented to take a seat in the convention which formed our present Constitution. In consideration of his eminence as a lawyer, the College of New Jersey conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. a few months before his death, which occurred March 19. 1846. At a meeting of the bar hell a few days after the following is among the resolutions then adopted

" Resolved, That In the death of Elias Van Aralale, Faq., we mourn the death of a most revered professional exemplar, where variety and depth of learning, revere necuracy, untiring diligence, undevlating fidelity to bis clients, Intense and sigunt ability in the elucidation of difficulty, have greatly contributed, at home and abroad, to enhance the reputation of the New Jersey bar ; and that we now place his name beside thome of Paterson, Ogden, Boudinot, Stockton, Kirkpatrick, Ewing, & nthan, Williamson and others of the great departed, as one of theer of whom we nud our State have just reason to be proud."

AARON BOYLAN was born in Bernardsville, Som- erset county, N. J., in 1778, and was the son of Dr.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

James Boylan, a physician of that place. MIT. Boylan studied law in the othice of Governor Aaron Ogden, at Elizabeth, N. J .. and was admitted to the bar in 1797. He began to practice in his native place, where he remained until 1$30, when he removed to Newark, N. J., where he resumed his profession, and where he continued to re-ide until the time of his death, December 2d. 1858, aged eighty-five years. He was the father of Aaron O. Boylan, David K. Bylan and James 11. Boylan, all lawyer-, and late practitioners in Newark.

AARON COF was born in Newark, N. J., in 1777. Ilis grandparents, removing from Long Island, settled in that place in the year 1723. Having received a good preparatory education, he entered, a- a student, the College of New Jersey, and was graduated from that institution in 1797. Soon thereafter he began the study of law in the office of Alexander Cummings Me Whorter, Esq., and was admitted to the bar in 1st. After practicing law for a short time in Newark, N. J, he engaged in mercantile business in New York City, and subsequently in the fur trade among the Indians on the Red River. A number of years having been thus employed by him in the West, he returned with his family and settled in the vicinity of his wife's father, Dr. Philemon Elmer, at West- field, then in Essex County, N. J. In February. 1.34, he was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Essex County, which office he held for five years. For several years he was one of the director- of the Newark Banking Company, and to him was assigned the duty of superintending the printing, numbering and counting of the bills issued by that institution. Mr. Coe, together with his sister, Abby, mother of the late Mr. William A. Whitehead, of Newark, inherited from their father, Benjamin Coe, ten acres of land in that city, lying between High and Arlington Streets, and between tourt Street and springfield Avenue. In the same manner they also came into possession of two acres of land on the corner of Washington and Court Streets, which was for many years known as the "Cor Home- stead." Mr. Coe died June 26, 17, in the seventy- eighth year of his age.

THEOHORE FRELINGHUYSEN was born in Franklin township, Somerset Co., N. J., March 28, 1787. lle was the grandson of Rev. John Frelinghuysen, who, in 1720, came from Holland to America, and, ettling in the neighborhood of Somerville, N. I., ministered for more than a quarter of a century to the Dutch residents scattered over the counties of Somerset and Middlesex. His father, Frederick Fre- Inghuysen, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, became distinguished not only as a law- yer and a statesman, but as a gallant officer in the Continental army. Theodore Frelinghuysen, the subject of this sketch, also received his education at the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, and was graduated theretrom in 1804.

Choosing, like his

father, the law for his profession, he entered, as a stu- dent, the office of Richard Stockton, at Princeton, where he pursued his studies until 1808, when he was admitted to the bar. In ISI1 he became a counselor, and in 1817 a sergeant-at-law. Having chosen New- ark N. J., as his residence, he removed there, and, in 1809, married Charlotte, daughter of Archibald Mer- eer, Esq. During the thirty years in which he remained in practice he was fully employed, and, in most of the more important eauses that arose in dif- ferent parts of the state, was sure to be retained. Ilis eloquence as an orator, and his excellent judgment as a counselor brought clients to him from every direction. In 1517 a Legislature opposed to him in polities, elected him in joint meeting Attorney-General of the State, and, by re-election-, retained him in that office until 1829, when he was chosen a Senator of the United States. Already had he declined the office of justice of the Supreme Court, tendered to him in 1826, Not only on the floor of the Senate, but in its com- mittees, his abilities were unquestioned, and the in- Anence which he there exerted was felt many years after he had left it. The first important matter on which he addressed the Senate was the bill for the re- moval of the Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River. His object on this occasion was to defeat the bill, and his speech is described as one of great power and eloquence. He also took an active part in the discussion of the Pension Bill, the President's Protest, the Force Bill, the removal of the government de- posits from the United States Bank, the compromise tariff, etc. His Senatorial term expired in 1835, and he resumed the labors of his profession.

In 1836 the town of Newark was advanced to the importance of a city. In the following year Mr. Fre- Jinghuysen was elected its mayor, and in 1838 was re- elected, and would have been continued in that office, without doubt, had he not been chosen, in 1839, chan- cellor of the University of the City of New York. This position he accepted, believing, perhaps, that in his advancing years its duties would be more agree- able than those of the profession in which he had so long and so arduously toiled. He had passed scarcely five years in this retirement from the conflicts of the forum when, in 1844, he was called upon by the Whig party to be their candidate for Vice-President of the United States, with Henry Clay, their great leader, as candidate for the Presidency. It was a memorable political struggle to which even the names of these two most popular men could not bring victory to their party, but the principles which they represented were subsequently triumphant. The contest over, Mr. Fre- linghuysen continued to pursue the even tenor of his ways, performing, perhaps, even more heartily than ever, his daily duties, as well as those imposed upon him as President of the American Board of Com- missioners of Foreign Missions, also as president of the American Bible Society. At last, in 1850, he was chosen president of Rutgers College, located in New

Framlinghamy son

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THE BAR OF ESSEX COUNTY.

Brunswick, not far from the spot on which he first drew breath, and, though still a vigorous man, it is easy to believe that he looked not forward to many more years on earth, and that so near to the place where they first began it would be appropriate to have them end. He accepted the position, and twelve years after, on the 12th of April, 1561, his dia- tinguished and useful career came to a close.

THOMAS T. KINNEY, son of Col. Abraham and Hannah Kinney, and brother of the late William B. Kinney, was born in Newark, N. J., January 28, 1785. Hle studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Feb- ruary, 1808. For many years he was surrogate of Essex County. During the years 1817, 1818 and 1819 he was a member of the General Assembly of New Jersey, and is said to have been a man of more than ordinary talents, and possessed of great abilities as an orator. Ile died in the prime of life, January 3, 1826.

ALEXANDER CUMMINGS MCWHORTER, JR., son of Alexander Cummings Me Whorter, above noticed, was born in Newark, N. J., January 7, 1794, and having received a good education, was admitted to the bar in May, 1817. He practiced law in his native city, but, like his father, died at an early age, this sad event having taken place on the 29th of August, 1826. Ile left a widow and several children.

AMZI Dopp, son of Gen. John Podd, was born in Bloomfield, Essex Co., N. J., in 1793. In 1813 he was graduated with honor from the College of New Jersey, and soon after entered, as a student, the office of Joseph C. Hornblower, subsequently chief justice. Having been admitted to the bar in 1817, he began the practice of his profession in Newark, where he soon established a good reputation as a law- yer. For several years he was prosecutor of the pleas of Essex County, and on different occasions was its Representative in the State Legislature. Ile died March 19, 1838, at Trenton, while attending the Su- preme Court. Mr. Dodd is spoken of as a man of more than ordinary intellectual endowments and of very amiable qualities. He was never married.

WILLIAM W. MILLER was born in tierman Valley, Morris Co., N. J., in 1797. Hle was graduated from the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in 1814, and soon after began the study of law in the office of Theodore Frelinghuysen, Esq., then a young prac- titioner iu Newark, N. J. After being admitted to the bar in 1818, he began to practice in Morristown, where he remained two years, when he removed to Newark, where he continued to exercise his profes- sion until the time of his death, which occurred in Paris, France, in July, 1826, at the early age of twenty-eight years. He is represented to have been a young man of far more than ordinary ability, and his professional services during the last year or two of his life were in great demand. His death was oe- casioned by the rupture of a blood-vessel while suni- ming up a case in one of the courts of New York

L'ity. Ile went soon after to Europe by advice of his physician, but died in the city of Paris. He left two sons, who became lawyers,-Archer E. Miller and William P. Miller.

ARCHER GIFFORD, son of Capt. John Gifford, an old settler of Newark, was born in that town in 1796, and was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1814. Entering soon after, as a student, the law office of Elias Van Arsdale, Esq., he there pursued his studies until 1818, when he was admitted to the har. Among the resolutions passed at a meeting of the Essex County bar, held immediately after his death. we find the following :

" Resulted, That in the death of Str. Gifford this bar has lost one of it- Hunt upright, honorable and respected members, -one who to great learning in his own profession added large and varied attainments in other branches of literature and science, and to great prolity of character and rxarties in businres traumetiene alded singular kindness of heart and the courten manner of a gentleman in all his relations."

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 69

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 840

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840